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Chevrolet teams were earlier this week given the green light to trim material from their homologated dashboards to make it easier for drivers to get in and out of the Camaros.
The change was requested by Erebus Motorsport after feedback from Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle, who turned laps in an Erebus Camaro during Winton testing several weeks ago.
Randle’s laps came as part of ongoing development of a steering rack designed by Tickford as an alternative to the troublesome Sportech unit.
Mark Dutton, manager of Chevrolet’s homologation team Triple Eight, said not all teams have opted to make the alternation ahead of Sandown.
“Thomas has driven both of the cars and said it was much easier to get out of the Mustang than the Camaro in a driver change,” Dutton explained to Speedcafe.
“Like anything, the cars are controlled so you’re trying to make them as similar as possible, so it was investigated by some of the Camaro teams, asking could we trim it?
“They went to Supercars and asked permission, Supercars came to us and said ‘can you suggest a trim line?’, which we did.
“Our drivers haven’t said it’s an issue for themselves, so we haven’t done it, it’s an optional trim just on the right side as you’re exiting the vehicle.
“Good on the honesty from Thomas to not keep it quiet and to identify a difference, that’s playing a straight bat.”
While the Chevrolets have run the same, Triple Eight designed and homologated dashboard since the Gen3 cars debuted last year, there remains various versions in the Mustangs.
Ford and its homologation team Dick Johnson Racing are said to still be working on a final unit.
“I think there should be because the cars are meant to be standard and Supercars have always had a level of presentation and alignment with the road car variant,” added Dutton.
“Our dash is very, very similar to the road car. The main difference between them is not everything functions, but also it’s moved inwards because of the driver position change.
“But everything else is a carbon copy, visually, of the road car because that’s what a Supercar is meant to be.”
Six cars are running the Tickford steering rack this weekend, including Erebus’ #9 Camaro.
